Macaron (2021)
Player: 1 to 5 . Time: 45 minutes . Age: 10+
Illustrator: Holly Chiu and Rachel Kim
Inspiration: Traditional bridge game
To celebrate King Louis’ birthday, royal pâtissiers are busy preparing Macaron gift boxes for the royal family and guests. At the end of the celebration, the pâtissier who has made the most boxes wins and becomes the most prestigious pâtissier in France. But beware, underneath the cheerful pâtissiers and colorful Macarons, an allergen might slip into your box and ruin the pastry. Are you ready to make some Macarons?
Macaron is a pastry-themed trick-taking card game for one to five players. In it, players are bakers in medieval France trying to become the most favored royal baker to the king and his family. In the game, players will receive victory points at the end of each round, based on the number of boxes prepared. The game ends at the end of a round when a player has accumulated 10 or more victory points. The player with the most victory points wins the game. In case of a tie, players share the victory.
COMPONENTS
Group board x 4
Scoreboard x 1
Macaron card x 52
Voting token x 12
Start player marker x 1
Royal marker x 1
Allergen marker x 1
Score token x 5
Box token x 5
Betting token x 5
Rulebook x 2
LINKS
Macaron Tutorial from OCEANO DE JUEGOS.
Unboxing from Tabletop Belltop.
KICKSTARTER PREVIEWS
Antoinette Mason of Board Game Inquisition / Tabletop Inquisition
"Macaron does a lot of things I like, which is excellent, and it does it while having a very beautiful presentation, which I appreciate even more. If you’ve got art, you’ve got solid gameplay, and you’ve got a genre I like, well, that’s definitely a winning recipe for me, so if you’re looking for another trick-taking game to try, I’d recommend looking at Macaron and seeing if it’s your kind of game! It certainly is mine." - Eric Yurko of What's Eric Playing. Click Here to read Eric's comprehensive review of Macaron.
"For trick-taking fans, the game is like the cookie: petite and delightful, and hard to quit after just one taste." - Jonathan Liu of GeekDad. Click Here to read Jonathan's comprehensive review of Macaron.
"This is a versatile game that works well at all player counts but we especially enjoyed it as a 2v2 Bridge-style team game, which is offered as an alternative to the more conventional everyone-for-themselves four-player game. The 'theme' may be no more substantial than a thin dusting of icing sugar but it's enough to give Macaron a great table appeal so that even non-gamers will clamour to play a few hands. That really does make this the whole package." Selwyn Ward of Board's Eye View. Click Here to read Selwyn Ward's overview of Macaron and the 3D view of Macaron review copy.
"After a few rounds and internalizing all these changes to the formula, I appreciated the type of experience the game is trying to communicate. The card play, scoring, and betting all synchronize together like a popular boy band."
"It’s also one of the few games allowing you to express your personality through its mechanisms." - Mark Iradian of Cardboard Guru. Click Here to read Mark Iradian talks about the essence of the Macaron game.
2-player review and playthrough by Nick and Sarah Trager of Meeples On the Ground.
"Macaron is a cute and simple trick-taking game which puts an innovative new spin on traditional trick-taking mechanics." - Nick Trager of Meeples on the Ground
Review by Jason Smith of Boardgame Mechanic
"So as a lover of Euchre, am I also a lover of Macaron? ABSOLUTELY! It takes everything I enjoy about Euchre and somehow simplifies AND complexifies it." - Travis Lopez of Purple Phoenix Games. Click HERE to read Travis Lopez's comprehensive solo game preview.
By Moe Tousignant of Tabletop Bellhop. Click Here to read more.
By Eric R. Burgess of Boardgame Babylon. Click Here to read more.
"Covered by adorable illustrations, Macaron can attract many non-gamers to pave their ways to the board game world." - Stephan Sonny of Meeple Eksyen. Click Here to read Stephan Sonny's comprehensive Macaron preview.
By Chris Goodlet and his loving family. Click Here to read more.
"This game sounded like my life...eat the macarons because they are the gluten-free option, but beware the allergens! I wasn't so great at avoiding the allergens in the game, but thankfully I am in real life. The pictures looked delicious and made me wish I was in France so they did their job. We had a good time." - Beth, a family member of Chris Goodlet.
2-player playthrough by Lance Goodwin of Love 2 Hate.
"With so many nice mechanics such as betting and voting, Macaron is a trick-taking game unlike any other. And the look and theme take it to another level!" - Lance Goodwin of Love 2 Hate